TSS Fight of the Year: Orlando Salido vs. Terdsak Kokietgym

After discussion and deliberation and hours spent poring over Cliff Rold’s timeline and YouTubing, I chucked all that time an energy spent, and made an executive decision.

I decided that Kelsey McCarson was my TSS Staff-Member of the Year, and to honor that, I decided that the man who let himself get beat up by Jermell Charlo for charity choose the TSS Fight of the Year.

Have at it, Big Mac, The Lefty Righty from Texas who may not be BWAA material but is an all-star scribbler in my book, a keyboard tapper who I can always rely on for his professionalism, his willingness to give effort, heart and soul to the fightwriting cause and his charmingly quixotic poisonous darts he tosses on Twitter at the tribunal.

What, sir, is your and thus the TSS Fight of the Year?

McCarson weighs in : “It wasn’t a particularly strong field for Fight of the Year in 2014, but as always there were some really solid brawls. HBO has lobbied for Terence Crawford TKO9 Yuriorkis Gamboa to get the nod. Showtime is doing the same for Lucas Mathysse KO 11 John Molina. Both were cases of impressive comeback wins for cable TV headliners, and both were knockouts. Each would be a fine choice. The ESPN.com Fight of the Year went to Francisco Rodriguez Jr. W12 Katsunari Takayama, a solid strawweight scrap even if no one really saw it happen on this side of the world.

“But my favorite fight this year was Orlando Salido KO11 Terdsak Kokietgym, a wild and fun thriller with seven total knockdowns between two fighters giving it their all on Sept. 20 in Mexico. The 34-year-old Salido (42-12-2) might be done at the elite level, but the veteran nabbed two solid wins this year. He handed Vasyl Lomachenko his first loss as a professional in March and then overcame three knockdowns to beat the 33-year-old Thai fighter Kokietgym (54-5-1) in September.”

Congrats to these battlers, and thanks to all the boxers who gave of themselves for our enjoyment!”

Thanks, Kelsey, for your efforts this year, and that same sentiment goes out to the other members of Team TSS. Every day, I appreciate what you do, and the only thing different about today is that I moved to make that more public than usual. Happy New Year, friends on staff, and readers, as well. Blessing to all good people! —Editor Mike

WATCH RELATED VIDEOS ON BOXINGCHANNEL.TV